Wagon-wrench



(N0 Mode a1.)

G. E. WOOD, WAGON WRENCH.

No. 558,246. I Patented Apr. 14, 1896.

, UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE E. VOOD, OF SOUTHINGTON, OQNNEOTICUT.

WAGON-WRENCH.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 558,246, dated April14, 1896. Application filed October 31, 1895. SerialNo. 567,507. (Nomodel.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE E. Wool), a citizen of the United States,anda resident of Southington, in the county of Hartford and State ofConnecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Wagon-N'Vrenches, of which the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription, whereby any one skilled in the art can make and use thesame.

The object of my invention is to provide a simple, compact, and strongform of wrench, by means of which the nuts for holding a wheel on awagon-axle may be easily put on or removed.

To this end my invention consists in the details of the several partsmaking up the wrench as a whole and in the combination of the parts, asmore particularly hereinafter described, and pointed out in the claim.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is a front view of the device,showing the jaws partly opened to grasp the nut. Fig. 2 is a side viewof the tool shown as holdinga nut, with part of one of the jaws brokenaway to show the nut. Fig. 3 is a detail back view of the wrench withthe jaws partly opened.

The wrench as a whole is made up of a pair of lever-handles pivotedtogether and having lateral grasping-jaws, and in the accompanyingdrawings the letters a 1) denote the levers,

each having a handle portion 1) a and a head a 12 these two levers beingpreferably halved together and held by a pivot o. The halving togetherof the levers, as described, provides convenient shoulders, which limitthe opening movement of the levers on each other.

A spring d, preferably of wire, mounted on the pivot or on a tubular lugprojecting from one side of the lever near the pivot, has arms whichproject along and press against the outer surface of the jaws, tendingto hold them closed as the normal position. The j awclosing spring maybe made in any other convenient form and attached to a different part ofthe tool; but the form of spring shown and its method of attachment arepreferred as the simplest and most convenient.

Each lever at its head is provided with a lateral projecting jaw e of alength sufficient to grasp the squared portion of the wagonnut, which isscrewed upon the outer end of the carriage axle. These jaws form opensockets and of a V shape or equivalent angular shape in cross-section,so as to adapt the jaws to fit upon the nut and firmly hold it betweenthem.

The levers may be of any desired length to afford the proper leverage tounscrew or turn up the nut; but for the purpose of providing means for aspeedier motion of the levers when the nut turns easily a crank-handle fis provided. This crank-handle f is preferably mounted upon an extensionof the pivotbolt 0; but it may be mounted upon a stud projecting fromthe back of the levers in any convenient position, but preferably at apoint close to the head, so as to reduce the distance through which thecrank must travel in a rotary movement about the axis of the axle onwhich the nut is fitted.

The shorter ends of the levers are provided with supplemental jaws g 72,which consist of angular opposing recesses cut in the adj aoent edges ofthe shorter ends of the levers, and these jaws are adapted to grasp andhold a small nut, and thus enable the tool to be used as a wrench forremoving the nut from a shaftcoupling or any like part of a carriage orother structure.

The levers comprising the main portion of the tool are preferably castor wrought to shape of metal, and when united, substantially asdescribed, and having the crank-handle, which is preferably rotary, onits stem, provide a strong, durable, and effective wrench for use as awagon-wrench or for a like use.

The manner of using this wrench is as follows: The jaws are opened to anextent sufficient to enable them to closely grasp the nut, and thenwhile the levers are pressed together and the jaws closed firmly uponthe nut a r0- tary movement of the levers turns the nut in the desireddirection. If the nut is being removed, as soon as it is loosened by thelever action with the long handles a speedy rotary movement is impartedby grasping the crankhandle and turning the nut. As the jaws arenormally closed together by the action of a spring the nut is firmlyheld in place between the jaws and can be' replaced on the end of theaxle and screwed up without requir-in g the nut to be handled by theoperator IO of the levers and normally pressing them together, a handlelocated on the opposite side of the levers from the 11ut-holding jaws,and a pivot uniting the levers and supporting the spring and the handle,all substantially as described.

GEORGE E. \VOOD.

Witnesses ARTHUR 13. JENKINS, J. STERN.

